BaAka women's health and subsistence practices in transitional conservation economies: Variation with age, household size, and food security

Robinson, Carolyn A. Jost; Remis, Melissa J.

doi:10.1002/ajhb.22817

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…Though surprising, these results concord with work by anthropologists. Jost Robin-son and Remis (2016) found that among Aka women exposed to market integration and hunting restrictions, older women had lower body fat and increased inflammatory markers. Riddell (2013) found that within villages exposed to commercial forestry and conservation activities, Aka likelihoods changed more as compared to villages with less exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unintended impacts from forest certification: Evidence from indigenous Aka households in Congo

Doremus

2019

Ecological Economics

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Does Forest Stewardship Council certification of "responsible" commercial forestry change nutrition, health and wealth for indigenous peoples, like the Aka of the Congo Basin? Using hand-collected data from the boundary of a certified and an uncertified forest in the Republic of Congo five years after certification, I compare nutrition, health, and wealth using questions that are locally salient and survey timing designed to reach semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers. Though I only observe outcomes after certification, I find suggestive evidence that forest certification may cause increased food insecurity and illness frequency for Aka households. I find no evidence of increased material wealth; instead, the poorest 15th percentile is poorer. Forest certification includes a bundle of activities, including participatory mapping, greater market integration and hunting restrictions, making it difficult to pinpoint the mechanisms driving these results.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unintended impacts from forest certification: Evidence from indigenous Aka households in Congo

Doremus

2019

Ecological Economics

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“…There were just seven studies ( 39 , 46–48 , 61 , 64 , 69 ) that were regarded as utilising validated and gold-standard methodologies for measuring and reporting quantifiable contributions of wild, forest or NUS foods to diet quality. These studies utilised more than one dietary intake method (usually a combination of a quantified 24 h recall and a food frequency questionnaire) and repeat recalls on non-consecutive days.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can common dietary assessment methods be better designed to capture the nutritional contribution of neglected, forest, and wild foods to diets?

Raneri,

Boedecker,

Fallas Conejo

et al. 2023

Front. Nutr.

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Food systems are the primary cause of biodiversity loss globally. Biodiversity and specifically, the role that wild, forest and neglected and underutilised species (NUS) foods might play in diet quality is gaining increased attention. The narrow focus on producing affordable staples for dietary energy has contributed to largely homogenous and unhealthy diets. To date, evidence to quantify the nutritional contribution of these biodiverse foods is limited. A scoping review was conducted to document the methods used to quantify the contribution of wild, forest and NUS foods. We found 37 relevant articles from 22 different countries, mainly from Africa (45%), the Americas (19%), and Asia (10%). There were 114 different classifications used for the foods, 73% of these were specifically related to wild or forest foods. Most dietary assessments were completed using a single day qualitative or quantitative 24 h open recall (n = 23), or a food frequency questionnaire (n = 12). There were 18 different diet related indicators used, mainly nutrient adequacy (n = 9) and dietary diversity scores (n = 9). Often, no specific nutritionally validated diet metric was used. There were 16 studies that presented results (semi) quantitatively to measure the contribution of wild, forest or NUS foods to dietary intakes. Of these, 38% were aggregated together with broader classifications of ‘traditional’ or ‘local’ foods, without definitions provided meaning it was not possible to determine if or to what extend wild, forest of NUS foods were included (or not). In almost all studies there was insufficient detail on the magnitude of the associations between wild, forest or NUS foods and dietary energy or nutrient intakes or the (qualitative) diet recall methodologies that were used inhibited the quantification of the contribution of these foods to diets. A set of six recommendations are put forward to strengthen the evidence on the contribution of wild, NUS, and forest foods to human diets.

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“…Even if the involvement in intense activities might not relate to the overall energy spent over the day (Sarma et al, 2020), further study should explore gender differences in the energetic cost of food acquisition and preparation in relation with health among the Baka. As the Baka are currently experiencing nutritional transition (Reyes-García et al, 2019), and Baka women seem to play a key role as food providers, they might be more exposed to food insecurity, especially the older and post-reproductive women, as seen among the Aka (Robinson and Remis, 2016).…”

Section: Food Acquisition Activities In a Mixed Subsistence Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cost of Gathering Among the Baka Forager-Horticulturalists From Southeastern Cameroon

Gallois

Henry

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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What present-day foragers do for their living and what they eat have long been privileged areas for exploring human behavior, global health, and human evolution. While many studies have focused on hunting and meat acquisition, less attention has been given to gathering and plant foods. Despite evidence of variation in both nutritional quality and energetic costs of gathering different plants, the overall effort spent on gathering in relation to other subsistence tasks is still under explored. In the current context of economic, climate, and social changes, many forager societies also rely on other subsistence strategies, including agriculture and wage labor. In this study, we aim to explore the place of gathering in the livelihood of a mixed economy society, the Baka forager-horticulturalists of southeastern Cameroon, by comparing the involvement and the costs of activities related to food acquisition. From a pool of 153 adult participants (97 women and 56 men), we collected 246 daily records using a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracker combined with heart rate monitor and time allocation recalls. We compared the duration, distance traveled, and the intensity of work, measured by calculating the metabolic equivalent of task (MET), of subsistence activities related to food acquisition. Results from this work show that gathering activities, performed by both women and men, are energetically costly, with higher MET values than hunting and fishing activities. Furthermore, the MET values vary depending on the targeted plant foods. We discuss these insights in the overall framework of subsistence patterns, merging them with the socio-cultural and environmental factors that might explain Baka livelihood and subsistence strategy.

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BaAka women's health and subsistence practices in transitional conservation economies: Variation with age, household size, and food security

Cited by 8 publications

References 61 publications

Unintended impacts from forest certification: Evidence from indigenous Aka households in Congo

Unintended impacts from forest certification: Evidence from indigenous Aka households in Congo

Can common dietary assessment methods be better designed to capture the nutritional contribution of neglected, forest, and wild foods to diets?

The Cost of Gathering Among the Baka Forager-Horticulturalists From Southeastern Cameroon

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